After 5 years of racing the Seafair triathlon, the biggest coed triathlon in WA, I had never been able to crack the top 25 women. Last year, I went off in the elite wave and finished as the second to last elite. it was totally discouraging.
i was not going to race it again this year because I am so frustrated with my history of poor finishes and because I haven't been running at all, but then my little sister said she was going to do it as her first triathlon so i registered for the elite race again, expecting to embarrass myself ... again.
The swim went well, I pushed it harder than usual and finished in a little over 12 minutes for 800 meters. not bad.
the bike is my leg of the race so i just got on and hammered as hard as i could. i passed 4 or 5 of the other elite women in the first couple of miles and picked off another woman at around mile 6. At mile 8, my training partner, who was spectating spotted me and yelled "you're in second, hit it hard!" All I could think was "CRAP CRAP CRAP!" I pushed it back into transition knowing that I was having a good race but that the run is my weakest leg. I came off the bike in a little under 33 minutes for a pace of around 22 mph. Surprisingly, the fastest women's bike of the day.
The run actually felt good. I wanted to finish in the top 10 so I was just thinking "don't let more than 8 girls pass you" ... ha. At around mile 1.5 one girl passed me like I was standing still, good for her, she was running really well. Just after she passed me, we ran up a hill, turned around, and ran back down it. At the turnaround, with a little less than a mile to go, I saw about 5 other women not far behind me. I didn't think I could hold any of them off but I just kept running as fast as I could despite my lack of run training.
Amazingly, no more women passed me and I managed to finish 3rd overall! I even won money! I've never won money!
The final results were:
800 meter Swim: 12:17
T1: 1:29
12 mile bike: 32:48
T2: 1:13
3.1 mile run: 22:39
FINISH: 1:10:26
3 out of 15 elite women
3 out of 728 total woman
My little sister also did awesome finishing in a little under her goal time of 1:30:00 and throwing down the second fastest bike of her age group ... she must take after her big sister.
Sinking In
6 years ago
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